Met up at the hostel after 24 hours travel, the duvets and hot water were a god send! That evening we went to a local restaurant and completely over ordered, the food was lovely though...very salty, but nice! We had slight concerns about how we would cope with the language barrier when the waitress didn't understand when we asked for a bottle of water! During the meal the biggest koi carp escaped from the ridiculously small fish tank and started slapping its way up the restaurant! After a struggle with a fish net the waiter finally managed to get it back into the tank...the water shortly turned a disturbing red colour!

The next day we ventured into the city trying to locate the tourist office, it got a little frustrating when everyone we asked for directions just started gigglind at us! Anyone who did speak English mind you was very keen to speak to us, they're so excited about holding the Olympics. A Chinese student called Grace carted us off to meet Professor Peter and spent the next hour showing us boxes after boxes of the oriental artwork! Meanwhile Peter was writing our names in calligraphy! We made our way to Silk Street (shopping mall) and bought some nik naks after bargaining hard, which we did with confidence after all our practice in India. It was quite funny at times, the sellers would look like they were about to burst into tears or have a nervous breakdown if you didn't buy from them! Before we knew it Maggie and Alex (their Enlglish names!) were taking us to meet their friend who sold cheap acrobat tickets - everyone has been so friendly...don't worry Mums and Dads...we're still keeping our wits about us!

The next day we went to see the Great Wall of China with a group of 4 others; two older women from America and an Indian couple...the Indian girl, Pritika, was extremely jealous when we told her about our Bollywood experience, she confirmed that our co-stars are in fact very famous in India!! We chose to do a less touristy area of the wall and got to spend some time walking along, soaking up the surroundings...we also discovered just how unfit we are!! The fact we were severely out of breath and feeling slightly delirious must have been why we paid 7 pounds for our 3 novelty t-shirts...that were 50p each round the corner!

The next day Sal and Vic took a trip to the hairdressers. Sal sat there relaxed, confidently gesturing how she wanted her hair cut to the non-English speaking hairdresser, before paying the 2 pound fee! Vic on the other hand spent about 30 minutes deciding whether to actually get her hair done or not...Finally, feeling brave she agreed to have her hair cut. This was possibly the most challenging time for Vic so far in this trip as she spent the next hour snatching the comb off the stylist, trying to explain they'd not put as much conditioner in her hair compared to Sal's, whilst sitting white knuckled on the edge of the seat as the now extremely nervous hair dresser cut literally a millimetre of hair off!!

After such an ordeal we needed a reason to go out with our new hair do's and went to watch an acrobat show. It was very impressive, a must see in China. We're not sure if it was a coincidence or not, what with the hair cut earlier, but that night Vic started feeling a little poorly and had an early night.

Got up the next morning and we went to see the Forbidden City. This was a bit disappointing because most of it was under construction. We decided to get dressed up in the traditional Chinese costumes and have our photo taken, very cheesy, but good fun!

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to leave for Qingdao. Overall we liked the history of Beijing and having some of the comforts were so badly craved at times in India. We weren't quite so keen on the fact we were smoking the equivalent of 30 cigarettes a day - the pollution was definitely visible.

Got to Qingdao (where they are holding the water Olympics) and tasted some of the local delicassies; squid and pork kebabs. This was the first proper hostel we had stayed in and decided in order to meet more people a shared dorm was the way forward. Later that evening we met Andrew, a Swiss guy, and our two new best friends, Ed and Russ from England. We spent the evening chatting and drinking with them and tried out the local "Lennons bar", where a traditional Chinese band sang Beatles hits!! Luckily the few drinks that we'd had numbed some of the pain of the man who constantly snored and the other who sniffed the whole night through! Seeing as we'd met 3 people that weren't in our room we decided a dorm wasn't necessary...plus we didn't want our sleep disrupted again!!

The next day we went to the beach with the lads and had good fun despite there being no sun and the sea was absolutely freezing! There was us in our bikinis willing the sun to break through while the Chinese wore dodgy balaclava type head gear to keep any chance of sun off their faces! Posed for some photos with some very excitable Chinese girls and then tried some more kebabs...it definitely wasn't chicken! Had a nice relaxing evening watching a dvd and eating popcorn!

Got up early ish the next day and went to Lao Shan mountain. To start with we were freezing cold but after the 1000th step we were sweating profusely and gasping for breath! We adopted another Chinese friend, Lucy Lu (her French name), who kindly advised us to get off the bus at the wrong stop! After a 45 minute trek back into the City we decided we'd earned a Mc Donalds!

Spent the next day wandering round the food market, admiriing (from a distance) some very bizarre looking 'things'...pigs trotters, chicken feet, various insects, turtles, smelly raw fish and other indescribable goods (see photos!).

Decided we'd really go to town on the evening and put our Sunday best on! Got some dodgy spirits and beer from the local shop and had a private party on the balcony...at the end of our corridor!

We've had a really good few days with Ed and Russ; they made us laugh from start to finish, very easy company. We were sad to say bye but to quote Ed "it's not the end, it's only the beginning" (in a very strong Brummie accent!!).

Heading on to Shanghai next for a couple of days...